Jump to content

Adding Electronics to our Models


NZEOD

Recommended Posts

I dremeled off the excess board material that doesn't carry the circuit. One fits in each Floodlight

One in the Tomahawk Floodlight, one each in the Beam Cannon barrels.

For the Phalanx I used just the SMD chips in the 3 Floodlights

I also made resin lens over the LEDs and in the ends of the Beam Cannons

That's about 10mm with the SMD board right?

I want to add the neos to my Yamato, it would be a shame not to. But I just dont have that much space.

I think I will use neos on the wave motion gun, and analogs with timing for the rest.

It will take me months to learn, but I think I have time since I'm taking the build very slow.

Will the instruction manual on the Adafruit teach me how to time analogs?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

naa... send me a rough idea of the effects you want and the timing and cycles and I'll help you write a sketch program for them and the wiring and resistors.

use the Neos for the main guns and engines, standards for the deck lighting and any nav lights.

Edited by NZEOD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

naa... send me a rough idea of the effects you want and the timing and cycles and I'll help you write a sketch program for them and the wiring and resistors.

use the Neos for the main guns and engines, standards for the deck lighting and any nav lights.

I hear you... but I had some problems with fiber for the main guns, because its too stiff and doesnt allow rotation.

At this scale, it is also diffcicult to thread the fiber through the main gun parts, and can snap off my custom turrets.

So I went with SMDs on magnetic wire which are very flexible and avoid all these problems.

I can still go with fiber if I can solve these.

Edited by arbit
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glass fibre or Poly fibre? Go poly and mount the fibre and the turret LED all under the turret in a cradle and have it turn with the turret...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glass fibre or Poly fibre? Go poly and mount the fibre and the turret LED all under the turret in a cradle and have it turn with the turret...

Will give it another shot.

Finally ordered my Trinket and neos and the book. Paid a pretty penny on shipping because I live in the ash-end of space.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You had said you used the 6mm Gizmozone gearmotor for the Destroid arms.
How did that work out?

It would be cool if the Yamato turrets could turn, fire, and return in place.

Adafruit can handle 2 servos, so I guess I will try that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

at a completely lower level, I just ordered this in color White on Ebay for less than 3USD.

It has a 2x CR2032 case + integrated button with 3 flashing modes. It looks small enough to be integrated and I hope it is easy enough to remove the cloth and use the LEDs inside my models :)

post-15880-0-71621000-1472134900.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

at a completely lower level, I just ordered this in color White on Ebay for less than 3USD.

It has a 2x CR2032 case + integrated button with 3 flashing modes. It looks small enough to be integrated and I hope it is easy enough to remove the cloth and use the LEDs inside my models :)

It will be running conductive silver thread for the wiring hidden within the cloth weave to the LEDs. Just take a few photos of where the connections go to and from the LED modules for when you rewire. I doubt you'll be able to remove them with the silver wires intact so some rewiring will be needed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finally got the Adafruit Trinket to blink correctly as per the How to Guide.

I was getting errors on the upload, until I found an FAQ that explained that Windows takes more than 10secs to compile the sketch.

The solution was to click upload, then wait about 5 secs before clicking the reset button.

I don't know if this solution will work for a longer sketch.

So Trinket's a bit frustrating for me so far.

Edited by arbit
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went ahead and ordered an Arduino Uno. I think this will help me to run a servo for the battleship turrets, as well as control many more LEDs separately than the Adafruit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

After further studying, controlling servos and fading/dimming lights require Pulse Width Modulation.

The Adafruit Trinket does not have a data pin with PWM.

You would need the Trinket Pro or full Arduino for those functions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filament lights or LEDs? The Neoppixel LED has the driver chip built in to it can carry out the fade commands from a trinket 5v

Edited by NZEOD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I received the luminous necklace today and dissembles it to its tiniest form. The power switch is a tad big (3cmx2,5cm) but the leds are just mounted on a pair of wires. The leds are basically PCB leds soldered directly onto the wires and glued in place.

This can be very nice setup if I can reduce the switch size, and reducing the dual battery cage to a single one

post-15880-0-07799800-1473976632_thumb.jpg

post-15880-0-01783900-1473977020_thumb.jpg

Test on my X-9:

post-15880-0-40620200-1473976759_thumb.jpg

On the workroid:

post-15880-0-33415400-1473976908_thumb.jpg

And sorry for the crappy pictures from my phone :(

Edited by Xigfrid
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love it


make the switch a magnetic reed switch.

That way its tiny AND you can hide the 1mm magnet on the underside of a peice of the model that can be "clicked" into place to turn it on, making the switch virtually invisible

Edited by NZEOD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I received the luminous necklace today and dissembles it to its tiniest form. The power switch is a tad big (3cmx2,5cm) but the leds are just mounted on a pair of wires. The leds are basically PCB leds soldered directly onto the wires and glued in place.

This can be very nice setup if I can reduce the switch size, and reducing the dual battery cage to a single one

This might give you some ideas if you want pre-wired switches.

http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/mosu2.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love it

make the switch a magnetic reed switch.

That way its tiny AND you can hide the 1mm magnet on the underside of a peice of the model that can be "clicked" into place to turn it on, making the switch virtually invisible

That's a great option, but I am realizing that for the current projects I got, I will need to also make a coat inside the cage where the leds would be placed. That's something to be considered beforehand.

This might give you some ideas if you want pre-wired switches.

http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/mosu2.html

That gives some ideas, thank you!

Edited by Xigfrid
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Apparently Neopixels are so new that they were never considered for the Arduino. Some special programming libraries are required to avoid conflicts... I haven't studied this much in years ;).

From Adafruit site: "Not a week goes by in the Adafruit Forums that someone isn’t heartbroken to discover that the NeoPixel and Servo libraries won’t work together in the same Arduino sketch. Fear not, help is on the way!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a wiring question (Yes, I know nothing about electronics):

I have a lot of wires coming out of my model, so I want to minimize them.

Can I solder all the grounds together and lead only one ground out of the model? Or will that mix the signals?

My (+) and Data lines will still be separate.

I am asking because I had tried that before by soldering (+) lines together and ended up merging my blinking and steady leds, so everything ended up blinking after a cycle or two.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

all the same input voltage? If so, yes. Just make the main line in a decent quality and good sized one. The servos will have a good current draw down on them. With Neos you can run a common negative AND positive line

Link to comment
Share on other sites

all the same input voltage? If so, yes. Just make the main line in a decent quality and good sized one. The servos will have a good current draw down on them. With Neos you can run a common negative AND positive line

Thanks, NZEOD.

Let me clarify:

This is what I have, 3x servos, normal leds, blinking leds, and 1x neopixel.

The leds have resistors for 9-12v.

All will take the input power from the 5v Arduino board.

The question is, can i combine all the ground wires for all the above, or should i separate any ground wires?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Combine

Its the same idea when you wire up a project on a breadboard. The ground is taken from the same line for everything.

The neo and the servos can all have the same positive feed too.

Edited by NZEOD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Combine

Its the same idea when you wire up a project on a breadboard. The ground is taken from the same line for everything.

The neo and the servos can all have the same positive feed too.

Interesting. Thanks. :hail:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...